As onboard electronic systems become more sophisticated, travelers increasingly turn to computer-aided systems for help with navigation, location, entertainment, and other information services. Although all of these services are useful, the navigation assistance services are perhaps the most widely used services. With respect to navigation services, a telematics unit may provide turn-by-turn directions and other navigation-related services via GPS based chipsets and components to aid the traveler in reaching a specified destination. Route directions may be in the form of verbal directions, displayed directions, or a combination of these media. Directions are typically provided based on geographic data accessed from a geographic information system.
Despite their widespread use and general usefulness, existing navigation assistance systems do not allow the user to specify any point on any road. Rather, due to the manner in which routes are calculated, only certain points are available as destinations or even way points or via points. The presently disclosed principles advance the state of the art in this and other regards.